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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

Hey CA! That was awesome! I listened to everything. Like getting an extra bunch of lessons. How great you guys got to do this. Everyone is doing wonderfully. I'm usually not posting here, either - still a real newbie. Thanks for posting the audio. Really, kudos to all of you, and Dave Frank too, of course.

That "Autumn Leaves" was pretty darn cool, JW! I enjoyed your solo, but particularly your comping! It sounds like you had a great crowd. I kind of wish the trumpet player hadn't been muted. Very nice - it's just so cool that you're out there doing great!

Thanks CMohr. I appreciate the nice comments. My solo was rather short because there were too many soloists already. I was playing AL today again under less stressful conditions and I do it so differently now. Maybe I should record again so there's a record of a new vision as each year passes.

The trumpet guy was an amateur that I let play with us. I do it all the time to give them gigging experience.

Hi JWI've listened to your AL and also to your Naima in the August recital. I'm going to listen to more of your stuff in the Advanced thread.I really liked your approach to Naima. It sounds like a difficult tune. I know that you don't think chord or scale, so what were you thinking ?

We had so much fun with Dave Frank during our video conf on Sunday. As you know, Dave is one of the hottest and most generous exponents of jazz education around the world. Here are the audio files for your benefit.

Hi JWI've listened to your AL and also to your Naima in the August recital. I'm going to listen to more of your stuff in the Advanced thread.I really liked your approach to Naima. It sounds like a difficult tune. I know that you don't think chord or scale, so what were you thinking ?

Thanks Custard. In the context of the scales (which are pretty complex in the case of Naima), you have to think melodically. Admitedly this took awhile to sink in since the harmonies are non-functional.

This was Naima as I performed it live. Totally lost the melodic focus...I was distracted by the unusual Bolero rhythm created by the bassist.

On these difficult tunes, it's really hard to come up with a melody. There's also a flaw in the singing because some complex harmonies are difficult to imagine singing (like diminished scales). And there's a lot of that here.

But it works well on functional harmonies and those I can also sing in my head.

My teacher is really big on being melodic. I think on advanced tunes like this, you almost have to create the melodic ideas in advance to get the brain started.